Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions

November 28, 2011

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Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions

A Dutch researcher has created a virus with the potential to kill half of the planet’s population. Now, researchers and experts in bioterrorism debate whether it is a good idea to publish the virus creation “recipe”. However, several voices argue that such research should have not happened in the first place.

The virus is a strain of avian influenza H5N1 genetically modified to be extremely contagious. It was created by researcher Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands. The work was first presented at a conference dedicated to influenza, that took place in September in Malta.

Avian influenza emerged in Asia about 10 years ago. Since then there were fewer than 600 infection cases reported in humans. On the other hand, Fouchier’s genetically modified strain is extremely contagious and dangerous, killing about 50% of infected patients. The former strain did not represent a global threat, as transmission from human to human is rare. Or, at least, it was before Fouchier genetically modified it.

Fouchier and his team used a pair of ferrets for testing because they react in similar ways as humans, when exposed to the flu virus. Researchers transmitted the deadly virus from one ferret to another, in order to make the virus more adaptable to a new host. After 10 generations, the virus has mutated allowing it to spread through air. The result was that ferrets could get sick just being near another infected animal.

A genetic study showed that new virus strain presented five mutations, and all could be also observed in nature – but only separately, not all five combined. Fouchier’s strain is as contagious as seasonal human influenza, which kills tens of thousands of people, just that, much more lethal.

New Deadly Flu Virus

“I can not think of a pathogenic organism more dangerous than this one”, commented Paul Keim, a specialist in microbial genetics who worked for many years with the anthrax bacillus. “I think the anthrax is not at all scary, when compared with this virus” , he added.

Keim is the coordinator of the U.S. National Committee dedicated to biosecurity issues and now he has to make a decision. If Fouchier wants to publish his study detailing how the virus was created, Keim’s and his committee must approve.

Many scientists are concerned about possible negative consequences that could precede the publication of this research. There are many fears regarding bioterrorists that might find useful tips or a whole ‘recipe’ to plan biological attacks. Demands are beeing made for the establishment of an international institution to oversee such dangerous research projects.

“It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it,” believes Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert

On the other hand, if the study becomes available for the scientific community, it could allow researchers to “be prepared” for a potential H5N1 pandemic. Since Fouchier’s study suggests that the risk for this to occur is greater than previously thought. Some researchers believe that banning the paper will leave mankind helpless if the virus naturally mutates and becomes contagious.

populationcontrol? If you would give each person of the nowadays 6,5 billion population a land of 1000 sqm in Australia, all the 6,5 billions could have a nice garden to grow fruit and on top all those 6, 5 billions would only cover the half of whole Australia!!!!
The lie of overpopulation like the lie of the climate problem is a brainwashing from danger people like Bill Gates, Merkel, Bush and so on. The experiment to make the virus airborne cost a fortune of millions, which was paid by private bankers! So their interest is, to get the best outmost of their “investment”. An airborne virus will spread fast worldwide and will kill about 25 times more, than the spanish flu.This new virus will be used to create the outbreak on the 27.7.2012, in a metrostation in London at midnight! And now lets answer the WHY? Because a elite group = Bilderberg are afraid, that too many people are waken up and see, what is going on in this world. If the humans would know, that everybody is a high energy battery, which could easily get connected to the universe,they would loose their power, to enslave us!!! Watch, how many new laws are this year issued, and how they limit our rights. After setting the virus free this summer, there will be announced Pandemic from the WHO, which is part of UN, which is part of CITY IN LONDON, VATIKAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ( the real dangerous rulers of the entire world). …Their are many new laws signed in USA, Australia, EU which allows then to announce MARTIAL LAW, which means, the military in each country takes the power over and ALL but ALL human rights are taken away from all of us and will never ever be given back to us! The goal is, to kill 90% of us either by this new virus, or by the given vaccination,by WW III or by several nuclearattacks (London 27.7.2012,then a short while later New York, Washington,Boston, and so on…)or starving from hunger, like they already practise since years in Africa. All this, what I wrote is documented. Check E.g. http://www.infowars.com, http://www.thehiddenknowledge.com, the bloodlines and the illuminatis, satanism and Vatican. Get yourself informed untill they also shut down the internet by SOPA or ACTA. If you realize, what they already did and what they will do in some months, then get yourself prepared and please, the only way to get us free from worldwide enslavement is : Knowing the Truth about what is really going on and who we are really ( very very powerful!) Never use weapons,as theirs are much better ( HAARP, MICROWAVE-WEAPONS, FEMA-CAMPS …..), dont shout, dont hate, dont be feared,. dont be FEARED!!! Trust in your power, like already some million humans are doing, reunite in love and peace. Dont go on the street, to fight them, because thats exactly what the want you to do! See Greece, it doesnt help ….. Our body has the most power, the highest vibration, when we are still in love and peaceful and thats enough to do!! Smile and stop hating each other, that will ” kill ” (destroy) the negative energy of the small group, who wants to kill us. I am 60 years, a medical doctor and did a lot of researches and read thousands of researches from other honest and peaceful humans. Lets change this world, we are the humans, we have the power as we are connected to the universe. But we get only this high power when we in the frequency of darkness ( Satanism ) or Love (without religion) United we are strong and think always, you are not alone in this change, we are already millions! Start to change NOW and put all your bad ideas away. Start to love the beautiful nature, the beautiful animals and the beauty in humans

while all this conspiracy theory is great, the need for land is quite overlooked. Just on the conspiracies, I don’t think they are so feasible, but I could be wrong; no one will know until it is proved true, but until I assume it isn’t. The part about everyone having enough living space, that is true. Yes, there is a bunch of land area, but with how humans use the earth, ocean levels WILL rise. Whether you believe in global warming or not, ocean levels have trended upward for some odd reason. That will decrease available land. For now, the land area we have is about twice as much as we need for 1000 sqm per person. The problem is exponential population growth.
Lets say that land area will STILL always be enough forever. The problem is water. Water is scarcity issue, the big issue. You can’t say some evil organization is trying to lie about us being out of water because the evil organizations are the ones trying to tell us that using up all the water and sucking the land dry until there is subsidence is not a problem.
So while its a hard truth, we do have some sort of population problem and research into making such a strong influenza strain instead of just working on better cures first puts us at risk of any scientist insane/practical/detached of humans enough to unleash this on the world.

Certainly America is the best at saying “America is the Best”. They used to be best at many things but that has faded as the ideology (dare I say religeous dogma) of “America is Best!” took over from actually trying to be Best at anything.

I don’t know why the U.S. National Committee would have jurisdiction over the publication of a paper from a Norwegian University! On the other hand the Netherlands (Holland) is a country of it’s own and does not fall under the flag of Norway! And people who are referred to as Dutch come from The Netherlands not from Norway, people from Norway are called Norwegians. I’m not American but if someone is planning on publishing a paper which will outline to the whole world how to make a virus that has the potential to kill 1/2 of us I’m glad that other countries are involved.

Scaremongering and panic reactions aside.. This is excellent research! If you Fraidycats actually pay attention you’ll see that all this guy demonstrates is the type of mutations that are likely to happen eventually: This stuff will hit us sooner or later. The question is should we use his research to prepare ourselves?

His releasing the info allows us to prepare for a superflu that eventually will have horrific consequences.. and make no mistake, it is only a matter of time before a superflu is upon us that will make the plague look like a bedtime story. All trends point to a long overdue resistant and lethal bug, and our global travel patterns and overindulgence in drugs/shots will probably result in highly mobile, highly vaccine-resistant and rapidly mutating strains. The CDC is in fits over the dire results it is getting out of its pathogen simulators.

For anyone that frets that mad scientists can create doomsday viruses as a result of this kind of work: Bad news. Basement dna-hacking kits are freely available over the internet and a dozen countires that you probably dont want to visit are at this moent doing exactly the same research. Reverse engineering viruses is done every day, albeit at the funded-laboratory level, but this technology is soon within reach of budding biochemists everywhere. This is work that WILL be done by the freaks and geeks sooner or later.

Long story short: This effort is reproduceable, independent of this authors work. It is not a patented secret – just a mildly hidden recipe, soon to be discovered.

All the more reason for it to be published now in public sight, to increase the universal understanding of the virus mechanisms involved, so that a thousand labs around the world can start building defenses.

Simple question: Should we be prepared? If so then we MUST use his work to best advantage.

Just because the collection of mutations exist in nature does not mean that they will all be gathered into a single virus by any means other than the most extraordinary. The creation of the swine or avian flu from a seasonal is merely a single antigenic shift.

As you said, all trends point to a long overdue super bug. Though this may be true, flu strains become very virulent because of reassortment of one flu’s genetic “chromosome-like” RNA arrangement with another flu’s genome. It is not because of a combination of 5 separate localized mutations.

Unless there is a very important reason why this scientist’s research requires such a virus, the risks clearly outweigh the benefits.

Everybody’s talking about what if sceniaro’s, the strain is already developed, how long before the research is sold or an accident happens.History repeats itself from the black death to the spanish flu the earths population has been culled several times throughout history. This time will be the worst, there are no natural borders anymore we tranverse the world daily and our built in immunity is almost nonexistant. We are squabling over who can develope an atomic device when the suvivors of this next holocaust will be who can develope the vaccine. Imagine the next great war won witout firing a single shot everything in tact all the technology natural resources with a limited population to divide it among.

i think at this point there is no option to publish it and develop a defense, if there is someone who would have the ability to create this in their own country, they probably have the ability to find this recipe or the people who created and make them talk, i think once something is created, it can not be undone, please work on a cure to diffuse the power that has been introduced.

I think that if a person is stupid enough to create a virus this deadly on purpose they should be behind bars! He is a extremely irresponsible person and should never be allowed to do research again…ever! I agree that we should immediately begin research to find a cure! And duh! of course it should not be published….are they ignorant? Why are they even considering IF it should be published. These people are supposed to be experts and they have to think about whether or not it should be published? Any 3 year old child would be able to figure out that publishing it is NOT an option!!!

You can’t have it both ways. In order for a defense to be worked on in any useful way the research must be published. It is unlikely that some super secret government team would pick this up and do anything useful. Fast work requires lots of people all over the world building on the research of others. Furthermore, your comments on how to deal with scientists that do unique ground breaking work with viri is appalling. This was research on how H5N1 “could” mutate. They did not set out to create a weapon. What they found was that H5N1 is a lot closer to being a very very big problem then anyone realized. That research could save millions of lives, and you’d throw them in jail? You need to get more of the “human” picture in your head. If you criminalize this type work you will effectively stop all research in the area. Do you not like vaccines?

I have a question. How public would the publishing be? Is he trying to get it published where anyone can see it or is it a journal that only trusted scientists and vaccine experts have access to? It’s perfectly normal and reasonable for people to be afraid of this information getting into the wrong hands.

Man, dog! this motherfucker ron be trying to kill us all! man dog! come on ron don’t do it man, dont do it. those motherfucking terrorists gonna make this shit if they find out the ingredients then we all dead bro all dead, not cool bro ima move to fucking africa if this shit happens so I can see my family dog.

[…] excerpt from an article at Doctor Tipster:“A Dutch researcher has created a virus with the potential to kill half of the planet’s population. Now, researchers and experts in bioterrorism debate whether it is a good idea to publish the virus […]

“modified strain is extremely contagious and dangerous, killing about 50% of infected patients.” That would seem to imply it’s been tested on people. Perhaps the guy should go to prison rather than have press coverage.

It says very clearly that the patients were Ferrets, and not human. Further, his research was authorized and funded to develop a preventative to the disease.

I am not arguing that the information should be released, as it seems that they could develop protections at a smaller scale, and only release the findings if they were needed, along with the process to deploy the new “super flu” shots….but they would lose the community working on that solution together.

See, the problem with that is, we don’t know how to cure viruses at all. As a category, viruses have eluded us… we can’t cure even the least deadly of flus, colds, or any other virus. Vaccines are specific to very specific strains and once a mutation has occurred, all bets are off. This research will not help us find a way to fight off this type of flu any more than using a regular flu to find a way to treat the flu would.

Yeah, bioterrorists are not the issue here. This guy just identified a specific strain that can very easily show up in nature. At this point the next step is to release the information and start developing vaccines before something like this does show up and takes out half the human race (and no, “the scientists” can’t just keep it under wraps so “the bad guys” don’t hear about it, that’s not how it works)

You also seem to forget Nagasaki… But look at this through a scientific perspective. If this virus were to hit within the next 3 months, wouldn’t you like to at least know what it is and that there are potential cures out there for it?

Given that at the present time it takes about six months to develop a vaccine using chicken eggs, waiting for an epedemic to happen would be a disaster. Cellular vaccine production would be a much shorter time, but at the present, those are only at the blueprint stage for the most part I believe.

I totally feel for the ferrets. I’ve had ferrets my whole life. Unfortunately they are used for testing. I could never hurt ferrets. It has to be one hell of a job waking up for work each day knowing you have to hurt animals. I do eat a limited amount of meat so I’m not an angel and ideally I wouldn’t and I realize finding cures for diseases is important. Many aspects of life seem cruel but many are awesome too. It probably is just a matter of time before a plague of some sort hits. It will be no doubt because of something created in a lab. I guess we’ll need to find somewhere off the grid when an inevitable killer virus strikes. Hopefully these early stories about this one aren’t an indication that this one will soon be unleashed. It won’t take long for something like this to spread.

Oh, cool, you…made a virus that could…kill half the world? And spent time on this…instead of, like, researching known diseases…and like, uh, viruses…to make CURES…….or something. I don’t know….maybe my logic is just BACKWARDS or something.

I can see trying to find a vaccine or something, if they don’t have one already, but the fact that they’re unsure whether or not they should release the virus creation makes me lose all hope in humanity.

This seems extremely irresponsible. All it apparently would take is for a group to kidnap and torture the details out of one of these scientists or hold a family hostage under threat of death unless the target mixes up a batch of the “special sauce.” The paper should be sealed and those with knowledge of it should be either killed or guarded for the rest of their lives. 50% of the human population vs. a handful of not too bright scientists who failed to grasp, apparently, the implications of this work before they started it. First of all why did he have to take it that far and secondly, why was this not done under utmost secrecy?

How is it irresponsible? That virus WILL mutate, in this way, at some point in the future. This research shows us with high certainty what those mutation will look like. This research can lead to the creation of a vaccine against a virus that looks like that. That will save millions of lives. How is it irresponsible? The likely hood that some “big bad” organization would steal and torture them…. pretty low. Stop watching hollywood movies.

Are you on crack? Can you really say that it is NOT irresponsible? Just because there is a POSSIBILITY it will mutate naturally in the future doesn’t mean we should turn around and accelerate the process by making a batch of it and then letting the whole god-damn world know!

Stop seeing this as “interesting” and get in touch with the real ramifications of this sh*t! There’s enough incurable nasties out there that need scientists attention without “playing” with new strains. Don’t be so sure that this is all about finding a vaccine for other incurable diseases. Humankind always has a hard-on for playing with fire. And never friggin’ learns.

Whether you like or not, bio-weapons do exist. The military loves to militarise everything in sight.

Cut the military some slack. Bio-weapons aren’t as common as you say they are. Also, talking with exclamation points doesn’t mean you get your point across, they just make you look like an idiot in front of the hundreds of people who read this article. Cursing… well it speaks for itself.

[…] Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions The world population issue is solved: Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions *canned laughter* =/ […]

[…] A virus with the potential to kill up to half the world’s population has been made in a lab. Now academics and bioterrorism experts are arguing over whether to publish the recipe, and whether the research should have been done in the first place. […]

Faucher should keep the research info to himself, and perhaps a very select few of trustworthy confidants. It should not be published. Heck, why are we experimenting with H5N1 trying to make it MORE contagious in the first place!?!?! Praise be to Science!

Um why the hell were you making a dangerous virus more contagious and lethal? That just sounds like a horrible idea in the first. Yes with all do respect towards the further growing in scientific knowledge, its progress. But towards what goal? And if your worried about the virus mutating to this stage of catastropic proportions. Then publish the fucking vaccine you baboon! Not the very “Recipe” in which you are asking for nothing but trouble. Yes some countries will have the funding to look towards vaccines themselves with said published research. But what of 3rd world countries? What of over populated and technologicly repressed countries where their economy is so bad they can barely afford to feed their children? The United States and other countries must control of this problem. It isnt our jurisdiction that is why it must be controlled through an international committee. – Thanks

So once again we are faced with a superbug like so many before it and so many more to come. Release the information, don’t release the information, sooner or later it will possibly occur naturally anyway. So what is the biggest threat? The 50% mortality rate? Reality is probably more along the lines of 25-30% in developed countries where medical care exists on a reasonable level, that being comprised of the elderly and the very young. However in the 3rd world, no offense, probably 70%+ due to poor medical care, excessive overcrowding, malnutrition, etc. Well at least Sally Struthers will be able to lose a few pounds without so many little kids to eat.

This is truly a boon for the enviromentalists, think of the carbon footprint reduction if it breaks loose….. I can hear Al Gore now “Let loose the Kraken.”

While I agree that the paper shouldn’t be widely published (yet), to say that the research shouldn’t have been done at all is lunacy. People seem to be completely ignoring the sentence “Since Fouchier’s study suggests that the risk for this to occur is greater than previously thought.” That means this could easily materialize on it’s own at any time.

The fact that a researcher has beaten evolution to the punch will give us extra time to come up with a mechanism to fight it, rather than having the virus catch humanity unprepared.

To say that this research shouldn’t be done at all is akin to saying, “I would rather have my loved ones die horribly around me instead of doing what I can to prevent it.”

Yes, I read that sentence. And these guys always have to justify their research. So publishing the “recipe” of this new highly contagious strain is beneficial to us is it?

Why is it that people in the “this is great news” camp ignore the fact that the “virus creation recipe” is being published. I think that sentence is a little more important, and indeed, more worrying than ignoring the sentence -“risk for this to occur is greater than previously thought.”

How about this scenario -why don’t scientists all around the world create new strains of a highly virulent nature in every conceivable way, publish the recipe for everyone to see so that we’re totally overrun with new incurable viruses. Then they could make vaccines for all those and charge us lots of money to take them. Hell, we could end up taking a hundred or more vaccines to prevent ourselves from getting these new accelerated viruses that were made in a lab by some half-wit scientist.

You’re right -this is smart. We should definitely give scientists and our governments carte blanche to do what the hell they want. Afterall, “they” know better don’t they?

I find it ironic that people are responding to this, the way they are.

First off, why would a terrorist use this virus? After all, he’ll probably kill his self, group and family with it. If it’s released, it is only a matter of time before it’ll spread around the world.

Islamic extremists aren’t stupid, they just have different interpretations, but why in the hell would they even consider releasing such a virus if it could kill people who believe the same way they do? Sacrifice only goes so far – I’m just hoping for their sake it doesn’t go that far.

Now, let’s get to more interesting points, it was noted that the virus could mutate on its own – and most of us would be dead anyway; it’s better that someone mutated it himself and publish the research to allow others find a cure. – I would however strongly recommend that the research wouldn’t be published for the entire world to see (what about just a few classified labs of a few governments? I’m sure they can keep a secret when it’s absolutely necessary.. *anyone?*).

So let’s stop overreacting, after all, do you know what goes on daily in the world? I’m pretty sure there are more *than just this single (lose the plural)* threats.

If you were to bring a sample of it away from your family, and infect yourself in the heart of the Great Satan that we are, it would spread. People would leave the country just out of happenstance, and bring it with them. Madagascar would seal its port. More people than can be pictured would die. That is a LOT of dead infidels, so whoever brought it over is going to be enjoying his 72 virgins. If his family happens to die anyway, they still died as a result of Allah’s will being done, and it would be worth it. In the case of extremism, it wouldn’t matter how many fellow believers die, as long as the infidels are brought low.

im pretty sure i just lost like 10 IQ points from reading some of your guys comments on this matter please shut the hell up, this guy did us a favor he created something that will be here soon anyways all he really did was give us the means to fight back for when it does naturally accumulate even if the paper is widely published what will terrorists scientists be able to do any faster then the god damn US of A it is the FLU!!! not super Anthrax or something calm your breasts and let these people do what they do best keep our sorry asses out of the dark ages

just the way CERN smashes atoms together to recreate the Big Bang caused so much controversy; the same is happening here. Humans learn by recreating the situations that we fear, and learning the building blocks of that result, therefore increasing our understanding. Duh!

The first question is ‘why’ would someone purposely create such a virus? The second is ‘how’ was this work allowed to go on? The third is ‘what’ do we do now?

Our species seems hellbent to destroying itself. If it is something nature preprogrammed us to do, then the reason becomes apparent; because we are dangerous. If not… then there should be a singular test of said virus on the person who created it.

ok, yes it is good that ron fouchier had been experimenting with the avian influenza… if it were in terms of finding ways to COUNTER the disease, but jesus.. DON’T MAKE IT WORSE?
oh and its brilliant that after saying how it has potential to kill 50% of the earths population, they want to PUBLISH it WORLDWIDE, WITH A DETAILED RECIPE…. WHY? ARE YOU PEOPLE INSANE?

i mean.. i never “live my life in fear”, but.. don’t you think, maayyybbee.. something of this magnitude, will raise enough eyebrows, and get enough attention, that it might possibly fall into the wrong hands? i mean… its happened before.

personally, i think that publishing the information about this modified virus isn’t a bad idea, if it is only distributed amongst other scientists, who respect the thought of keeping it safe, and not misinforming the wrong people.
scientists that are on the same level of studies, and perhaps studying the same disease.

still unsure why someone would make a deadly virus, more dangerous.. sigh.

[…] s); })(); EmailAs many of you well know, a Dutch scientist named Ron Fouchier managed to create a super deadly variant of H5N1 virus . He presented his work at a conference dedicated to influenza this September. The Dutch […]

Scientists can easily create a vaccine to counter this deadly new virus. If somebody was stupid enough to release this deadly virus without a vaccine in place, then the world left behind would not be worth ruling over. No evil villian would benefit. It would be back to the stone ages for humanity. The stench of 3 billion dead people would be enough for me to want to get off this ride.

[…] Doctor Tipster is running a story about a Dutch researcher who create a super-flu virus, right out o…. They followed up with an article debating not only whether the research should take place, but whether the research should be published. The reasons not to publish are obvious. Nobody wants Dr. No copying the recipe and unleashing a plague on the world. Historically, we have censored super-sensitive research, such as nuclear research, so there is some precedence. Before the internet, you weren’t about to find a book on making nukes in your local library. If you did, your name probably went to the FBI, X-Flies style. […]

It seems this has been a relativly easy development. Stands to reason many more are close (or there allready, and possibly a group of people you really don’t want to have that kind of information). Best case we have to wait for a while till it has naturally mutated.

I’d rather have people working on a vaccine now than hoping noone else will ever figure out how the guy did it. Then after some nutcase does release it, accidentaly or on purpose, or through natural changes, we’re to late.

That would be just plain stupid, and even worse, preventable (perhaps).

Bring it on!
With a current population of 7 billion, removing 50% only gets us back to the number the earth had in 1965, around 3.5 billion, which is still way too many to support. Better would be the “12 Monkeys” scenario, in which a 90% reduction rate would return the planet to the same number we had in 1700, around 700 million, which is a much more sustainable level.
In the words of Agent Smith:
“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.”

Humans are entitled to the use of this planet as we see fit. We are the most superior species on this solar system which is already provable by seeing what achievements humanity has achieved and still constinues to achieve. And you’re obviously human (unless this was sent by a spam bot) so why don’t you just take full enjoyment of being an individual of the most superior and dominative species on this solar system?

[…] Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions Is this what 2012 could be all about? Is this the cure for humanity? Thoughts? Arguments? […]

It is unacceptable to create a virus that might might kill half of the world’s population and then release the information to general knowledge on how to repeat the creation of such a thing. The creation of that virus is practically a creation of a weapon of mass destruction and this is why the scientists must be put behind the bars for the rest of their lives and all the material and information about their research to be destroyed. After all it is more dangerous than building ”a home made nuke” which already puts you behind the bars for a very long time. And they should be kept in a high security prison just to protect the world from their knowledge of how they created the virus. After all if they lived free it would be easier to terrorists to kidnap them force them to create the virus again when compared to being kept in a high security prison from where they would be a lot harder to kidnap from.

Lots of people here seems to miss the point:
1) No one knows how to cure even a normal flu virus, least genetically modified one; if you believe otherwise, go and get your cure from the regular flu in your neighborhood’s pharmacy.
2) You cannot be vaccinated against viruses like flu; if you believe otherwise, go and get your flu vaccine this year and rest assured that you won’t get sick. So, even if some smart ass would use this research to build a vaccine for this 5ly mutated strain, for the next year’s 6ly mutated strain it will be useless, good bye!
3) The “near future” in his press release does not mean anywhere in the near future. If one mutation directed to contagion may take years to occur naturally, five such mutations together will take those years to the power of five to occur naturally — read thousands of years. Massaging the virus into producing 5 directed mutations at once and selling this as “the danger is much nearer than we thought” is completely bogus.
4) There is really nothing wrong with doing a research like this, but if this fellow professor had a little bit of brain after all, he would consider the project a loss and destroy all the records and the viruses once it started to get clear where it is all heading. Alas, some people just don’t think…

It’s really not that hard to replicate, since I just did with 2 dozen ferrets. Took less than 4 months to complete the mutation to via air contagion. Anyway, got to run because I have to pick up my wife from the airport, plus I have to stop by the pharmacy for my runny nose, shivers and headache. Talk to you all later.

huh, I just have a few questions for all of you, how many of you are scientists? Did you do even one research? you don’t even know how it works and you talk like that! Don’t you know that in order to do a research, even on just one mouse, you have to go through an ethnic comittee and other comittees which will evaluate your project to let you do it or not? Don’t you know that in order to know if your hypothesis is correct you have to verify by some tests? His intention was not to create a new virus, do you think we have time to loose like that? His intention was to learn a little more about this virus because, yes, virus can mutate by themself so that our treatment won’t act anymore on them. He just want to learn more about it, that’s it that’s all. Now, he create a new virus to test his hypothesis, it happened to be very dangerous, do you really think he will publish how to make it? Of course not! All he will surely do is publish which mutations on which positions become dangerous. If you don’t know how it works, you can’t do anything! And finally, my last question, do you think that if nobody talk about it you will have such reactions? I mean, if nobody talked about it, then it means you would not know about it, and the bioterrorists either, if it has been keep in the scientist world where knowledge is need to understand paper, where money is need to read those paper, where everything has to be paid, there won’t be any problem!

Whenever America with it’s total germaphobia and journalists get involved in science, you can bet your bottom dollar that fearmongary is abound. H1N1 was going to be so horrible that half the world population would be dead by now – what happened: Less people died of it than the normal seasonal flu. Please people get a grip!

While Erik may have a point, vis-a-vis the lack of scientific understanding in scientific journalism, and the tendency to pander to public impact (and therefore overstate risk)…

In this case, **it is the ignorance of the real threat posed by influenza, exhibited by that post (and representative of a good segment of public opinion) that scares this infectious disease researcher**.

A basic tenet of risk analysis is that the more dire the event, the greater care that should be take to avoid it, even if the odds against the occurrence are relatively high. Odds against a pandemic flu each year are reasonably high, but they are not zero by any means. It is the consensus of informed scientific opinion that further pandemic flu strain will certainly emerge — that it is an issue not of “if”, but of “when”.

The last great pandemic in 1918 killed >20 million people (conservative estimate), notably **in a period of history before routine transcontinental air travel.** For more information, go to: virusDOTstanfordDOTedu/uda/ Extrapolating the impact of an influenza strain with comparable morbidity and mortality and similar virulence to the current environment for transmission (in terms of changes in urban population densities, air travel frequencies, etc.) is not fear mongering, rather it is good science motivated with the aim of good public policy.

Finally, when the next pandemic happens, it is reasonable to consider the possible impact of the virus. Early response to pandemic will include activating programs to develop a suitable vaccine (with time required being 4-6 months, WHO estimate), in which time containment and antiviral chemotherapies must be relied upon to limit the numbers killed by the contagion.

The facts that (i) true global coordination (in finance, in health, etc.) is as yet so culture- and politics-constrained, and therefore somewhat limited, (ii) that global mobility has essentially never been higher, (iii) that there is a single effective orally bioavailable anti-influenza drug, and (iv) that resistance to that drug is emerging (18%, Japan, 2010, see wwwDOTcdcDOTgov/flu/professionals/antivirals/antiviral-drug-resistance.htm) **make concern for potential impact of an influenza pandemic a significant concern,** notwithstanding the preceding post and better informed scientific arguments (e.g., Hayden on possible limited impact of NAI resistance).

Bottom lines: Get informed, take the influenza threat seriously, and support efforts — unfortunately, perhaps, but necessarily, through government agencies — to surveil trends in viral (and bacterial) resistance, and to develop new and better approaches to prevention and treatment. In particular, I urge having a backup to NAIs as the sole antiviral class against influenza. Prof D

[…] The virus is a strain of avian influenza H5N1 genetically modified to be extremely contagious. It was created by researcher Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands. The work was first presented at a conference dedicated to influenza, that took place in September in Malta… Read full article doctortipster.com […]

This is absurd. They absolutely should not have even tried to make a deadly and contagious virus like this. THEY should be responsible for making a cure for it now. Bioterrorists wouldn’t hesitate to make these viruses and release it through the air if they knew how to make it. They would be responsible for half of the population’s death. That means that if you have a family of six, a mother, father, two brothers, and a sister, then three of them will die. Possibly including yourself. This is not funny. This is serious and because of these idiots, half the earth could die, including animals. This is sick. Some things just shouldn’t be tampered with, just because you’re curious. You know, curiousity killed the cat. Now it will not only kill the cat, but millions of other animals and people as well. Instead of releasing it to the public, they should make a “cure” of some sort and /then/ either release it or just give it to other scientists. These people are extremely stupid, even though they’re scientists. That’s all I have to say.

This doesn’t make sense. If researchers deliberately transferred the virus from one ferret to another, the virus would lose the ability to infect ferrets. Viral genomes change rapidly, and lose any abilities that are not selected for. With researchers doing the infecting, infective capability would no longer be selected for. And the virus would certain not evolve a new method of airborne transmission!

An important point is that they estimate such a flue virus could kill millions, not billions, of people. This post says the virus could “kill half of the planet’s population.” That’s sensationalist nonsense.

[…] Volcano Eruption Could Have Global Impact Farmegeddon is Here! Response to Inquiry About Attacks Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions Digital DNA the New […]

[…] epidemic occurred after World War researchers believe that it had the same root as bird flu (H5N1). The victims were generally young people with a good health status, children and experts believe […]

[…] Threat, Terrorism | News | English [Dec 2011] That can kill half the planets population Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions [Nov 2011] The recent outbreaks of e-coli in Europe traced to seeds that infected more than 3,500 […]

[…] Originally Posted by ckk Anyone else have the article about the dutch researcher who created a SUPER virus that can kill half the worlds population and in only 10 generations of tests the virus mutated and became able to spread through the air. I feel like there's much bigger things to worry about then these camps which I believe will be used for containment of something im just not sure of what yet. as for me im as prepared as I can be lets just say that 2 week backpacking trip wasn't all for fun. When things go to complete shit i have the location of a lake at about 12k elevation in the sierras that will treat me just fine seeing as my fish trap, snares, and firewood/shelter are already prepared and concealed and weatherized.Non of us can be sure about what the future is going to bring but we can be sure that it is going to get much worse before anything can become better. Dutch Researcher Created A Super-Influenza Virus With The Potential To Kill Millions […]

What I’d like to know is have these scientists also created a vaccine in case of an accidental or deliberate release? Also, do these scientist not realize that their lives, and those of their families, are now in danger – not just from accidental contamination but also from the very real possibility that rogue governments and/or terrorists will do anything to get their hands on it; including killing the scientists and their families? Did these geniuses not think about this before putting this information out there?

population control! what do you idiots know about what the world should do? and besides when it says “potential to kill half the world population” it will easily do much more than that if it has that “potential”!

This… This is just too… I dont even know. First off, someone actually does this? And secondly, someone has to WONDER IF ITS A BAD IDEA to PUBLISH how to DO IT????? Really???? Really someone has to WONDER if its a bad idea?!?!?!?!

they do this do decrease population as fukd as that is….and since our ecosystem is being destroyed and threatening our way of existence……how else could they fix this problem?…..hmmmmmm…….An EXTREMELY CONTAGIOUS LETHAL SUPER VIRUS like on the moive “QUARANTINE 2″.

[…] rare in humans, but when it is transmitted, it proves fatal in 60% of cases. Shortly after the two research teams have created mutations in the H5N1 virus, this has sparked great controversy in the medical world. Many experts believe that research […]

Great work! This is the kind of information that should be shared around the internet. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and talk over with my website . Thanks =)

WOW!!! WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE STUPID ASS SCIENTISTS!! This Is Why The Aliens Are probly looking down on us and shaking their heads in disappointment This is what makes the human race look like a bunch of DUMB ASSES!!
!!

this is just stupid rather than see how bad they can mutate a virus to kill as many people as they can kill with viruses why not put that effort into oh I don’t know finding ways to stop them mutating in the first place or researching ways to get the human immune system to fight them more effectively my idea may not be the best but the point is don’t make the things worse find ways to control or destroy them and they should destroy everything to do with this research and out law it in future

IF you have reached this late in the game/posting, then a few things will be apparent: 1) this post is a over a year after the last thread was written; 2)There are some very angry people who are very scared about this at the time (but what about now?); 3)its ironic that most of the responses are either emotional reaction/response as if they, personally were affronted (Fear does that)OR a energetic debate on ethical right/wrong in the ‘scientific’ community about the experiment that resulted in a volatile new virus strain, ad nauseum.

SO… after reading all the posting i have concluded that no one asked the question what has been done since (not/publish,ethics, humanity) or did this flash-in-the-pan scare fold under the pressure of other “life threats?”

As a passing thought, what makes anyone think they will survive this? Nationality, geographical location, economic level, etc is not a ‘guarantee’ against an outbreak, if there is one. A virus could care less about human social values but it does rely on us being social and mobile. Again, passing thoughts.